


Someday

by DelilahBlueEyes



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-18
Updated: 2013-02-07
Packaged: 2017-11-25 23:10:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/643959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DelilahBlueEyes/pseuds/DelilahBlueEyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During a council meeting, Jiminy dreams of what he believes could never be. (It's too early for this. I'll come back and fix it later. :P)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by The Cricket Game and my love for Red Cricket.

“Jiminy is right,” Ruby spoke up from her spot across the table, drawing all eyes in the room to her briefly. “She’s our problem and we have to deal with her.”

“Then only one thing is certain. As long as the queen lives the kingdom is in danger.”

As the conversation moved from one point to another, as they discussed the fate of the evil queen bound up in the dungeon, Jiminy knew he should be paying absolute attention. He was one of the few present that was not baying for Regina’s blood. But Red—Ruby had said his name. Said it like they’d known each other well for a long time. And suddenly he couldn’t have paid any more mind to the debate at hand than he could fly to the moon. Because Ruby was sitting a mere ten feet away from him, and she looked wildly beautiful and she’d said his name as though he were old friend.

One tiny green claw went almost subconsciously to his waist where three glossy auburn strands of the werewolf’s hair were braided together to form a belt that he found himself habitually tying about his waist each morning. Now he stroked his claw idly across the silky surface as he watched her sharp, quick eyes follow the events unfolding around her. Her lovely berry colored mouth was stretched down in a frown and her unruly hair was twined away from her face under the hood of her cloak. She was entirely beautiful, even in her distress.

Even as he thought it, Jiminy forced his eyes down and away, his claw curling tight around his stolen accessory in shame. Look at him. The conscience of every person around him, and yet he nursed an inappropriate crush on a beautiful woman that would never see him as anything other than a kind talking insect. A curiosity not worth looking at twice. Of course she did. He knew it must be so. He was so small he required a megaphone to be heard by everyone in the room, for goodness sake! And yet…

From the moment she’d freed him from the glass Snow had overturned on him (during her…. er… Time of Wrath as the dwarves liked to call it) he’d felt his view of the self-possessed young woman changing. Every time they interacted at the council meetings she was well spoken and persuasive in her points, even when they’d met close to the full moon and he’d noticed her itching to be out and about as the change drew near. The smile he’d earned from her pixie-like face when he’d ask that the meeting end early with some excuse of a prior engagement with a centaur was well worth the guilt of sort of lying. Well, he did have to meet with Lucian that day, just not strictly at a time that would have required he leave the council session early.

He was wrong and immoral and sad for his current predicament. But she was so kind and beautiful and vivacious. How could he help loving her? This was never what he’d envisioned as part of his life when he’d asked the Blue Fairy to change him. He’d never thought about anyone the way he couldn’t help thinking of Ruby. Of course he would hold his peace and admire her from across the council chamber and not burden her with the knowledge of his affection. But perhaps, someday…


	2. Perhaps Soon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Set in SB. Archie has a run in with Ruby and goes to his office to brood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Requested by temporalteatime. She offered to trade smut but the muse struck again even without a bribe! Not that I won’t still accept it, mind you. I’m always open to bribery. I firmly believe in bribery. Especially of the smutty variety. This was longer and a bit more bittersweet than expected, and I have no idea what’s going on with the title. All I know is it’s 1 am and I set my alarm for 9 for a super fun time Friday! :D

“Now, Pongo, stop that!” Archie tried desperately to reel in his unruly Dalmatian without spilling his coffee or dropping any of the paperwork he’d brought home to fill out the previous night. In the end, of course, he managed to do both and drop the leash so that his dog was a magnificent blur of black and white as he dashed around the corner and out of view. Archie stood in place for a moment, entirely flustered and trying to decide whether he should go after Pongo or stay and collect what he could of his work. Thankfully the coffee had only spread to a few sheets before he crouched to gather them away from the spreading pool of liquid.

“Archie!”

He started at the bright voice and looked up through slightly askew glasses lens to see a very long, very bare pair of legs approaching beside a very giddy looking Pongo. Realizing he’d effectively further scattered his pile of papers while he tried to crane his neck back far enough to see the face attached to the lovely brown suede boots (and absolutely nothing in between), he dropped his gaze back to the ground. A pair of dainty, manicured hands joined his in the effort to get everything back into the sundry folders while he fumbled and almost fell over sideways.

“Ah- uh, good morning, Ruby.” Now that she had knelt and brought herself down to his level he could see the charmingly crooked smile she wore and the way her hair gleamed as it tumbled down over her shoulders to swing in the air between them. “Thanks for bringing Pongo back. I was worried he’d finally abandoned me.”

“No problem. Little scamp almost knocked me over while I was moving the specials sign outside the front gate! Although he drew up and came with me pretty easily.” She stood with a few pages in one hand and ruffed a hand over the happy canine’s head, who promptly leaned comfortably against her calf, seeming to open his mouth in a grin when it made her laugh. Had Archie not been so entranced by the glint of her teeth, the crinkle of skin at the corner of her eyes when she smiled, he might have been able to spare a thought to envy the dog’s casual contact with her. “What a charmer, huh?”

Ruby dug a hand into the pocket of her shorts and drew out a miniature dog biscuit, which she fed to the eager mutt with another carefree laugh. When he’d finished shoving every paper on the ground into the folders he stood and accepted the few Ruby held out to him, feeling his cheeks heat a bit when her skin grazed his lightly. She smiled at the way he almost fumbled his armful of folders once more and slipped the large black loop at the end of Pongo’s leash from her slim wrist and handed it over, Pongo himself reluctantly leaving her side after a farewell lick of her fingers.

They stood in not-quite awkward silence for a few moments that Archie frantically wracked his brain for a topic to breach it with. Nothing came to mind except for how lovely she looked today (totally inappropriate) or how the weather had been somewhat dismal lately (coastal Maine in September? Good observation). He glanced nervously at the ground while she smiled at him, readjusted his glasses and by the time he’d looked back up her eyes had strayed. Of course. He turned to find that the mechanic in town—what was his name?—was neglecting his work and casting glances in their direction with the subtlety of a stampede of bison. As Ruby gave a tiny wave that the young man returned, Archie found himself feeling distinctly redundant.

“Ah, well,” he broke the silence, effectively drawing her somewhat unnerving full attention back to himself. “Guess I’d better get to the office. Patients to see, paperwork to dry, you know.”

He managed to make her laugh again, though it was a shadow of the former full-throated laughs, and he thought she looked just a bit…. Disappointed? “Oh, of course! Well, here’s an extra biscuit for when you get to the office since he looks kinda sulky.”

She handed him the second treat (her pockets looked far too small to hold even those two things) without breaking eye contact, her fingers dragging along his as she pulled her hand away in a way that made his breath catch momentarily. Then she bent to give Pongo a brief kiss on the tip of his snout (again with the surge of envy of his own pet), gave him one more brilliantly bright smile and turned to stride smoothly away. He watched her until she reached the corner of the block again and paused to look for cars before sighing and turning away.

“Come on, boy.” He gave the leash a gentle tug and was surprised to see Pongo give him a reproachful glance before setting off at a brisk pace that he once again struggled to match. How could he help it that Ruby was bored talking to him and wanted to go flirt with someone more interesting? Or that he was so boring in the first place?

As he trotted down the sidewalk with his ungainly load of files, he didn’t hear the small argument that broke out between Ruby and the young mechanic about her car and when the hell he would get around to fixing it up for her.

Archie reached his work building with a distinct feeling of melancholy that only increased when he unlocked his office door and watched Pongo go to his bed in the corner of the room, lying down with his back firmly to Archie. Great. Even his dog was ready to be rid of him. He dropped the folders on the desk and went to his favorite armchair, forgetting until he’d already sat down that the leash was still folded neatly in his hand. As he prepared to stand again to leave it on the small end table by the door something caught his eye. He raised the leather strap to eye level and found four glossy strands of hair caught in the crease of the hand loop where it had been sewn back on itself.

After gently pulling the strands loose and setting the leash on the ground, he found himself idly stroking them with a thumb. Each one was soft as silk and as deep brown as a muddy espresso drink, though each revealed shifting tones of amber and chocolate as he turned them in the bleak morning light that filtered in through the window. Without thought or permission his fingers began to braid the strands together until he held a neat, thin plait in his hand. He wished he could put his finger on why the little thing made him feel so wretched. The longer he held it, the worse he felt.

Perhaps it was because of the way she’d smiled at him, the same way she smiled at everyone that stepped into the diner for a cheeseburger and pie. Perhaps it was the way this very same hair seemed to flow around her face like a dizzying, sage-scented river and the fact that he could never run his fingers through it to absorb the warmth that it surely radiated from her scalp. Perhaps it was the way he could never seem to keep his eyes from her when she was around, the way she always stopped to stop and speak to him for a few minutes, the fact that he couldn’t seem to rid himself of the inappropriate urge to tell her how beautiful she was.

The rhythmic pattern of claws clicking across the worn floorboards alerted him to Pongo’s approach. He was startled when a furry chin was rested on his knee, soulful brown eyes looking up at him with a compassion in their depths that he surely imagined. But as he lifted a hand to stroke familiarly across the canine’s head, he couldn’t help but smile. At least he would always have good ol’ Pongo, he thought as he continued to stroke his thumb over the braided tresses, gazing sightlessly out the window at the teeming, roiling clouds beyond the main street’s skyline.

Later, he would loop the thin hairs about his wrist and tie the ends together, wondering again why it made him feel so incredibly bitter.


End file.
